Tuesday, 5 July 2011

Berry Entertaining

Ross Noble and Friends on Thursday with "Thor" featuring Anthony Hopkins as Odin on Friday made last week one of the most entertaining at The Berry for Hedge End Blogger since the events of the opening week in April.

Stand up comedy looks like becoming a reliable income generator for the venue. Like Jeremy Hardy back in May, The Berry was sold out for Ross Noble and his friends - Holly Walsh and Joe Lycett - and I should imagine all of those 300+ punters came away very happy they had value for money.

It would be fair to say that the audience was somewhat smaller for the film presentation "Thor". Not a movie I would have travelled to Eastleigh or Southampton to see in a commercial multiplex, but the special effects were definitely more impressive on the Berry's large screen than they would have been on a DVD at home. At about two thirds what we would have paid in Eastleigh and no travel costs I am looking forward to catching up on some more movies during the summer.

The overgrown sign (reported by Hedge End Blogger in June.) has been tidied up, making the entrance to the theatre much smarter and more professional looking.

I suspect they wanted to look their best as they were expecting the BBC to come filming. It was an interesting piece on South Today about The Berry's community project to celebrate Hedge End's strawberry heritage. If you missed it, it's still available on the BBC web site.

All in all it's been a good few days for our new community theatre, but we still have some concerns about the way the Council is managing The Berry. Hedge End Blogger has asked the Lib Dem's arts and culture maestro, cabinet member Cllr Alan Broadhurst to comment on them. Alan has promised to reply when he has confirmed the latest position.

In the BBC TV soundbite above, the Berry was referred to as 'the BOTLEY theatre'. Why - when it is located in Wildern Lane? Another opportunity to promote Hedge End lost to its more glamourous neighbour.